More Bang for your Buck

Downloadable Content has become one of the biggest crazes of this generation of consoles, so I think its time I weigh in on the trend as well. I recently combed the Live Marketplace, hunting down the games that I own and recording what DLC was available for them.

Then I decided to compare their value to the retail games.

When I buy a game for anywhere from $20 to $60, I want to get my money’s worth. One way I measure a game is the hour-per-dollar method: how many hours did I spend enjoying the game, compared to how much did it cost? Great games tend to be over the hour-per-dollar mark. I put about 75 hours into Gears of War 2 so far, so it's more than worth it. Halo 3 fared even better, with about an hour and a half per dollar. Grand Theft Auto IV is the best-value retail game I have for this generation, with about 125-150 hours thus far, or more than 2 hours per dollar spent.

But in an interesting twist, the best game overall this generation was not a retail one. I recently bought Worms from Live Arcade for 5 bucks, and the 20 hours I’ve played so far (in only 2 months) make it more than worth the cash.

But does DLC have the same high value?

Most of the downloadable missions for retail games are quite short. The Jedi Temple mission for Force Unleashed, according to reviews, can be easily beaten within an hour. The Epilogue for Prince of Persia and Bring Down the Sky for Mass Effect both take about 2 hours to complete.

Operation Anchorage for Fallout 3 is only slightly longer, somewhere between 2-3 hours, but the new Fallout DLC, The Pitt, is said to last anywhere from 5-8 hours.

The Jedi Temple, the Prince’s Epilogue, and Operation Anchorage cost $10 each, making them a far cry from the hour-per-dollar mark. Bring Down the Sky is cheaper, at least, costing only $5 for the 2 hours of content. The Pitt is the only pack that comes close to the hour-per-dollar mark, since it is also priced at $10.

But the best DLC by far, according to this value system, is the Lost and the Damned for GTA IV. The new missions are supposed to take between 10-15 hours to beat, and feature a brand new character and plotline along the way. Fifteen hours is longer than many full retail games last. Plus, the pack also includes a wealth of new radio stations, vehicles, guns and multiplayer options. By the time you play through the missions once or twice, screw around with the new bikes and guns, and go online for a while, you’ll have spent far more than 20 hours. So while this pack costs $20 bucks, it still wins the best-value DLC crown.

In addition to having the best value, The Lost and the Damned also received the highest reviews, garnering an impressive 90/100 on Metacritic. So the 15-20 hours won’t be a boring slog-fest, nor will they be repetitive. With a new character, new style of gameplay, and tons of improvements and add-ons, it’ll be a kick-ass time.

And it comes with 250 more achievement points. But that’s a topic for another day...

- Scott